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Universal’s Hobbs & Shaw isn’t going anywhere, and they’ll stay put in No. 1 this coming weekend with $28M-$30M, a decline somewhere between -50% and -53%. This as five wide entries flood the market including Paramount/Nickelodeon/Walden Media/MRC’s storied IP Dora and the Lost City of Gold, CBS Films/eOne/Lionsgate’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Disney/Fox’s The Art of Racing in the Rain, New Line’s 1978 femme mobster pic The Kitchen and Bleecker Street’s Brian Banks.
Why so much stuff? Some of these movies are bound to step on each other demo wise. Word is many rivals were trying to avoid Lion King, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Hobbs & Shaw. Another factor slowing down business this weekend: Kids are already going back to school with K-12 going from 96% out last Friday to 84% this Friday. That number will reduce down to 30% K-12 schools out by August 30. Meanwhile, 97% of all colleges continue to remain on summer break per ComScore.
Meanwhile, The Lion King in weekend 4 is going to create even more of a barrier for these movies with a $19M hold. Through Tuesday, the Jon Favreau-directed pic is up $444M. Meanwhile Hobbs & Shaw counts $74.4M after an estimated $8.5M Tuesday (Mission: Impossible – Fallout‘s Tuesday a year ago was $9.4M, with Hobbs & Shaw now pacing 4% behind the running total of that Tom Cruise pic). Hobbs will easily cross $100M stateside this weekend.
Of the new stuff, Dora and the PG-13 Scary Stories are expected to knock heads in their targeting of young females and Hispanic audiences. Each is expected to bring in $15M-$17M. It will be interesting to see if Dora, which has the bigger brand power, will overperform, however, tracking isn’t showing any kind of crossover. The pic is already 86% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and will likely remain the best reviewed pic of the wide entries this weekend. Dora will play at 3,500 theaters. The pic co-financed by Media Rights Capital and Walden Media cost around $49M net.
Scary Stories, directed by André Øvredal and produced and co-written by Guillermo del Toro, is based on Alvin Schwartz’s novels. In the pic, a group of teens contend with the town’s local haunted house where the Bellows family lived. Sarah, a young girl in the family with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time. No RT score reported yet. Previews start at 7PM Thursday before expanding to 3,000-plus theaters on Friday.
New Line has the Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish and the Elisabeth Moss wives of gangster movie The Kitchen which is based on the DC Vertigo comic book series. The pic doesn’t have an RT score yet, and that’s intentional. Expect this movie to do $9M, possibly low double digits, at 2,745 theaters. Limited previews start tomorrow at 7PM.
Disney has Fox 2000’s The Art of Racing in the Rain starring This Is Us’ Milo Ventimiglia and based on Garth Stein’s novel. Even though Ventimiglia plays a Formula One racer in the movie, it’s another heartfelt dog movie in a year that’s been chock full of canine pics including Sony’s A Dog’s Way Home ($42M), and DreamWorks/Universal’s A Dog’s Journey ($22.5M). Kevin Costner voices Enzo the dog. Don’t expect Art to speed up at the box office with a high single digit take at 2,700-plus theaters. Those yearning to see the pic early can do so tomorrow at 6PM. Low RT score at 63% fresh. While both Kitchen and Art are hoping for older women, the latter is aimed at the faith-based 50-plus demo.
Lastly Bleecker Street has the Tom Shadyac-directed Brian Banks about the NFL prospect who was wrongfully convicted and sent to prison. Aldis Hodge plays Brian Banks, Greg Kinnear also stars. Pic in 1,327 locations in 100 DMAs is looking to do $2.5M. Previews start at 7PM tomorrow. Rotten Tomatoes score is at 53% Rotten.